I am less than a week away from leaving DC. It has been an incredible summer with lots of friends, family, sightseeing, and general living the DC Life. But what really made the summer special was the Washington Program course I took with Dr. Kate Weaver. There were nine students in the “Crisis and Change in International Organizations” class held at the UT Archer Center. The objective of the course was to understand the changes, crises and reforms taking place in the United Nations, World Bank, IMF and other international organizations. This course would not have been the same if it had not been taught in DC.

Instead of spending hours in the classroom discussing theoretical research papers, Dr. Weaver arranged a series of guest speakers who told us what was really going on in these organizations. We talked to people from the World Bank, IMF, UN and UNHCR who gave their perspective on their organizations. We talked US Congressional staff who gave us the government view. And we talked to watchdog groups like the Bank Information Center who gave us the civil society view. Every one of the speakers was engaging and refreshingly candid. My summer in DC would not have been complete without that learning experience.

On Tuesday, 2 August, Savin and I fly to Beijing, China for a two-week course titled “Development Within a Low Carbon World: Preparing Professionals for Policy and Planning Instruments for Green Innovation.” I am really looking forward to that class and visiting China for the first time. I will write one more blog post when it is over. It should be the perfect end to an exciting summer of learning and experiences.